Jackson’s first career NFL interception opened the floodgates for the defense, with Jaylon Johnson and C.J. Gardner-Johnson following with picks of their own.
(3) Johnson praised the Bears’ front office for acquiring players who have replaced injured starters and performed at a high level.
Examples include Jackson, Gardner-Johnson and cornerback Nahshon Wright, who was expected to compete for a backup role when he signed with the Bears in April but now leads the NFL with eight takeaways.
“It’s a big credit to our personnel staff,” Johnson said. “It’s difficult your first year to try to align everybody and be on the same page of what we’re looking for. That was the attempt that we made there in the winter and springtime was spending time together, outlining what we’re looking for from our corners to our safeties, to our linemen—both sides of the ball and special teams included in that—and so to their credit, they went out and they found some guys.”
Jackson, Gardner-Johnson and Wright all arrived in Chicago this year having familiarity with Bears coaches. Jackson played for defensive coordinator Dennis Allen in New Orleans, Gardner-Johnson was with Johnson in Detroit and Allen in New Orleans and Wright worked with defensive backs coach Al Harris in Dallas.
“That helps because you have coaches that know the personnel intimately from the get-go, and those guys also have a little bit of a grasp of the scheme as well,” Johnson said. “So, it helps to hit the ground running like that, but all three of those individuals have made significant contributions to the team and to our defense over the course of the season. And that’s kind of what you count on going into it. You know there’s going to be attrition. You know guys are going to go down.”
(4) Johnson liked what he saw from Williams, particularly his accuracy and how quickly he went through his progressions.
The second-year quarterback completed 17 of 28 passes for 242 yards with two TDs, no turnovers and a 112.5 passer rating.
“He was comfortable,” Johnson said. “He did a great job. It’s a hard thing to be comfortable when the pass rush is like that. Myles Garrett gets all the attention, but across the board they do a great job collapsing the pocket. He has a lot of confidence in his protection unit up front. Thought those guys did a good job. We had a good plan I thought and worked to execute it accordingly.
“I know we gave up a few sacks. But I always think it starts there when it comes to the quarterback, and he has to have that confidence in the people out in front of him that he’s going to have some time to work through his progression. He certainly looked that way when you turned on the tape. He’s taking his drop. His eyes are in the right spot. I think he was anticipating what coverages they were going to be in, and that was able to help him speed up his play and get through his progressions a little bit cleaner, too.
“I thought it was a good week for him, a step in the right direction. I told him this afternoon, I said, whatever he ate for breakfast yesterday, we just need to keep doing that on game day from here on out.”
